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Chinese Figurines in Mesoamerica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stephan F. de Borhegyi
Stephan F. de Borhegyi*
Affiliation:
University MuseumUniversity of OklahomaNorman, Okla
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Extract

In a recent article J. Alden Mason (1951) called attention to 2 small Chinese figurines found in local archaeological collections in Mesoamerica. One was from Azqueltan, Jalisco, Mexico and is now in the University Museum, Philadelphia (catalog number NA- 11808), and the other was in the Vitalino Robles collection of Quezaltenango, Guatemala. Both are of a soft stone and were described as “crawling infants.” While browsing through a collection of archaeological objects in an antique shop in Guatemala City I came across another small Chinese figurine similar in most respects to the ones described by Mason. The shop owner, unaware of the Oriental origin of this specimen, was sure that it must have come in with the other artifacts from Kaminaljuyu, a large archaeological site on the outskirts of the city. The figurine has been presented to the University Museum (catalog number 54-4-1).

Like the Quezaltenango specimen (Mason 1951 Fig. 1, a), the stone figurine from Guatemala City is an opaque yellowish-amber color with reddish veins and has a very soft, soapy texture (Mohr scale 2.8).

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , January 1955 , pp. 286 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1954

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References

Cammann, Schuyler V. R. 1952 A Chinese Soapstone Carving from Yucatan. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 68–9. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heizer, Robert F. 1953 Additional Note on Chinese Soapstone Carvings from Mesoamerica. American Antiquity, Vol. 19, No. 1, p. 81. Menasha.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, J. Alden 1951 On Two Chinese Figurines Found in Mesoamerica. In Homenaje al Doctor Alfonso Caso, pp. 271–6. Imprenta Nuevo Mundo, Mexico.Google Scholar